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Rush Headlong Into “Midnight Junkie”, by Brooklyn’s Baked. New Album, “Farnham”, Out Now on Exploding in Sound.

Posted on 2017/03/02 | Leave a comment

Baked, “Midnight Junkie” (Exploding in Sound)

This just in from the local weather bureau – a.k.a., my window.  It’s windy. I mean like, shit is creaking and banging and I don’t even know what it is windy.  It’s also wondrously sunny – like, over-exposed 9mm film of an old road trip sunny.

So, as I’m sitting here, squinting and expecting the Wicked Witch of the West to cycle by any moment, I stumble upon this gem of a track – “Midnight Junkie”, by Brooklyn five-piece Baked – and it all clicks.  The track is a magnificent howl, with a glowing melody at its heart that leaves you seeing spots and a guitar shred at around 2 minutes like they don’t make much of anymore, all held tenuously earthbound by a dolorous, Jim Reid-esque croon.  It’s the perfect aural accompaniment to the arboreal bowing and scraping taking place outside under the watchful glare of an ever nearing fireball.

“Midnight Junkie” is taken from Baked’s latest long-player, Farnham, which was released last week on Exploding in Sound and which I can’t wait to dig further into.  If you’re headed to SXSW, you can catch Baked at the Exploding in Sound showcase March 16 at The Velveeta Room.  Follow Baked on fbook bandcamp and the twitt.

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Naked (on drugs) Return, Bearing “This Gift”

Posted on 2017/02/28 | Leave a comment

Naked (on drugs), This Gift (Tombed Visions, 2/24/2017)

Describing sounds like those made by a band like Naked (on drugs) presents a challenge, since they largely defy straight-line comparisons.  The group from Salford – who we’ve missed since 2014 – have returned with This Gift, an album containing re-recorded old friends and new material, and featuring a new lineup enhancing the core duo of guitarist Luke Byron Scott and singer/multi-instrumentalist Sebastien Perrin.

“Boudoir Fingers” sets the mood, coming in all big band sex machine and slowly grinding its way towards what seems, at first, like the sounds of la petite mort but ends up something more akin to a scene from “Natural Born Killers”.   The band’s perverted swing is evident on the revamped title track, which (without diminishing our fierce loyalty to the original) retains a dirty-faced loucheness and now includes a minutes-long chaotic whirl, as well as new track (and lead single), “Sedative Smile”, a further, Humbert Humbert paean to the “dirty white tights and green leather jacket” clad Lee Ann.  Elsewhere, there’s a fine balance of outright groove and experimental noise riffing on tracks like the older “Death Dance” and new, “Rapture” on ludes cut, “The Hair Suit” (a new personal fave), while “The Hotel” provides a leeringly lovely close to the proceedings.

Every so often – including as I was pulling together this word jumble – I get (self-diagnosed) ocular migraines.  Beginning as protozoan blobs, they unravel into ever longer, attenuated strands shimmery with the colors of an oil slicked puddle.  It seemed fitting.  “*Sigh* But, what does it sound like”, you ask?  Fine – jazz, goth, noir, new wave, no wave, Nick Cave, Bowie, Brel, Brecht, bop – all thrown into a blender and pulsed, …pulsed, with the top off.  Sing in the rain.

This Gift is out now, and available on limited edition cassette via Tombed Visions.  Stroll the darkened streets with Naked (on drugs) on fbook, bandcamp and/or their site.  Enjoy the video for “Sedative Smile”, below.

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Glitter Veils Share “Gossamer Folds” and “Soft Touch” from Forthcoming Figures in Sight.

Posted on 2017/02/08 | Leave a comment

Glitter Veils, “Gossamer Folds”; “Soft Touch” (Flexible)

Photo credit: Savvy Creative.

 

Australian duo Luke Zahnleiter and Michael Whitney make music as Glitter Veils.  Their album, Figures in Sight, is due this Friday (2/10) from Flexible Records (an imprint of Terrible), who have been kind enough to provide teasers in the form of “Gossamer Folds” and “Soft Touch”.

A pleasantly disorienting, almost vertiginous, feel wafts from these tracks.  Like a liquid motion toy’s suspended, colored drops fusing, detaching, and reforming in slightly different ways, familiar threads – the Guthrie-esque guitar wash in ‘Gossamer Folds’; the early industrial heft to the programmed beats underpinning the peyote-fueled western glitter ball of ‘Soft Touch’; a dream pop feel here, a bit of JAMC menace there; whispered, droning vocals reminiscent of Spacemen 3 or Massive Attack – blend, separate and reconvene in novel ways.  “Gossamer” is my personal favorite, its bent guitar lines, slightly ooky fun house-style synths and lurching beat tracing lazy arcs in the sky.  Definitely looking forward to hearing the rest.

You can find (a bit) more things Glitter Veils on soundcloud and fbook.  Figures in Sight can be pre-ordered now on Flexible’s bandcamp page.  Tune in, drop &etc.

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Hark! The Black Angels Return With New Track, “Currency”, from Forthcoming New Album, Death Song.

Posted on 2017/02/07 | Leave a comment

The Black Angela, “Currency” (Partisan)

“currency/carry me/everyone is held hostage…
one day it’ll all be over/one day it’ll all be gone”

A welcome return from Austin’s The Black Angels, whose new record (and first in four years), Death Song (which appears to be a riff on the band’s name and the Velvet Underground song from whence it came – meta!), is due for release April 21 (pre-order here) on Partisan Records.  Lead single, “Currency”, finds the band as tight as ever.  Singer Alex Mass’ voice is the linchpin and dead center in the mix – carrying more than a hint of menace on past tracks, here singing in almost plaintive tones of the social quicksand of a consumerist society.  The song, several times, threatens to go full-on freak-out – a sliding, fuzzed bass repeatedly sounding a clarion’s call – before showing restraint and a slow burn.  If this is anytnig to go by, the new album should be a good one.

The Black Angels will also tour behind Death Song – dates here (with A Place to Bury Strangers).

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Slip the Surly Bonds of Earth with Gnoomes on “Cascais”

Posted on 2017/01/30 | Leave a comment

Screenshot from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Gnoomes, “Cascais”

(Note:  headline borrows from the poem High Flight, by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.)

“Cascais” (which may or may not be named in honor of the Portuguese town of the same name) serves as a taster for Gnoomes’ forthcoming full-length, Tschak! (just the snare, then?).

According to the background note for the new album, its tracks were conceived amidst turmoil, both for the band’s members as well their hometown of Perm, Russia.  On this evidence, it would seem that Gnoomes’ focus was to make sense of these issues from a great height.  “Cascais”‘s interstellar techno meets drone vibe emits a narcotic effect during lift-off, a clear-headed guitar line slinging shards of light through the haze, racing towards a gorgeous, astral break at the 3 minute mark.  Like pulses through warp speed, it’s flashing lights and colors, a bit like Wire circa Ideal Copy and/or A Bell Is a Cup…Until It Is Struck (vocalist Alex Pyankov’s tone reminds of Colin Newman), mixed with Hot Chip.  From Russia with blurp.

Tschak! is due March 10 from Rocket Recordings.  Follow along:  soundcloud, bandcamp, fbook.

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John Dwyer Returns as Damaged Bug with New Track, “Bog Dash”, and New Album, “Bunker Funk”

Posted on 2017/01/26 | Leave a comment

Damaged Bug, “Bog Dash” (Castle Face)

Damaged Bug, the solo alter ego of Thee Oh Sees’ front man John Dwyer, returns with the the wigged-out funk of “Bog Dash”.  It’s a dialogue over analog:  b-movie aliens setting their laser blasters to ‘stun’ as ‘devoidoffunk’ backup yelps are devoured in a haze of dial-up modem blurps, a ‘last splash’ bassline and funky drummer drum loops.  In the middle of it all, Dwyer’s voice slinks lascivious, spitting enigmatic couplets as the aliens form a Soul Train line.  This is surely the tune running through James Brown’s mind as he sped down that lonely highway (reference for the kids).

“Bog Dash” is taken from the forthcoming Damaged Bug release, “Bunker Funk”, due March 10 from Castle Face.  Check for more on fbook.

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Aquarian Blood Tease Forthcoming Goner Debut with Amplified Madness of “Heaven Is In My Head”; “Won’t Forget to Die” and “Asshole In the Castle”

Posted on 2017/01/26 | Leave a comment

Members of Aquarian Blood, whose new album is due February 10 on Goner Records.

Aquarian Blood features husband/wife duo JB (Ex-Cult) and Laurel Horrell (formerly of NOTS).  What began (according to the band’s bio) as a home recording project has turned into a full-blown one, and they’ve offered the world a three-act tease of their forthcoming debut, “Last Nite In Paradise”: “Heaven Is In My Head”; “Won’t Forget to Die” and “Asshole In the Castle”.

Fans of each spouse’s other projects will find much to like here.  “Heaven Is In My Head” is full-on, raging synth-punk.  Announcing itself with a Tron-summoning synth line, the band throw it all into the red: vocals yelp and rail, guitars squall and synths tase – like being spun around, blindfolded, to pin the tail on the donkey…for almost two minutes.  “Won’t Forget to Die” (which, as the lyrics remind us, “no one ever does”), slows things wayyyy down the rabbit hole, a hazy raga psych drone wraiths around a Joy Division-y bassline, the gypsy strings towards the end adding to the fug.  Last (in track order), “Asshole In the Castle” – its title sadly fitting in these days and times – is more of a straightforward punk record, albeit with layered vocals and an off-kilter guitar hook.  Together, the songs make for a thrilling joyride.  Can’t wait to hear the rest.

But wait we must, if but only for a bit longer:  “Last Nite In Paradise” is due February 10 from the always in vogue Goner.  Check the Aquarian Blood bandcamp page for (slightly) more info.

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Sprain Your Neck to the Debut, Self-Titled Set from Brisbane’s Pious Faults

Posted on 2017/01/17 | 1 comment

Pious Faults, S/T (Tenth Court, 12/20/2016)

Photo credit: Glen Schenau

‘There ain’t/ no future/here”

“Complete Disregard” – the opening song on the self-titled, six-track debut (I never know if that’s an ep, album, or ‘mini-lp’ anymore) from Brisbane’s Pious Faults – begins and ends with a short, sharp feedback stab in the earhole.  It’s a fitting way to start off a set of intense hardcore with an ear to the past and an eye on the present.

Many new bands are using the visceral aspects of early to mid-80s hardcore (American or otherwise), twisting and turning them to serve their own purposes. The applies, as well, to Pious Faults – several tracks here would’ve fit nicely on seminal 80s hardcore comps like Not So Quiet On the Western Front, Flex Your Head (as Vice also points out), or This Is Boston, Not L.A.  But there’s more at play here, with a rhythmic variety beyond blinding, four on the floor speed or d-beat rehash (see, “Rentrer à Quatre”) and a welcome lack of a predictable breakdown/‘mosh’ (does anyone still use that word?) bit or a shout-along chorus (really, choruses in general), all adding a welcome twist and the promise of future evolution.

As with any self-respecting h/c joint, it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome (only one (one!) track is over a minute long – someone tell D.R.I.!), and it’s all the better for it; points made, ears rung, move along.

Out now on the fab Tenth Court label (home, also, to tgh fave Chook Race).  Order here.

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The Self-Titled Debut from Tropical Skin Byrds Staggers

Posted on 2017/01/13 | Leave a comment

Tropical Skin Byrds, S/T EP (Wharf Cat Records, 1/13/2017)

‘your pain is my pleasure”

Tropical Skin Byrds is a musical trio comprised of artist Nina Hartmann on vocals and bass, ZZ Ramirez (of tgh fav, Ukiah Drag) on guitar and Sean Halpin on drums.

Teaser cuts, “Cut it Off” and “Venus In Fury” set the tone nicely, with Ramirez’s chugging, Ginnesque lines pushed way up front in the mix, backed by Halpin’s sledgehammer drumming.  The overall effect is blissfully disorienting, the music buffeting as Hartmann’s insistent cries strobe from somewhere at the center of the maelstrom (something in her vocal delivery recalls Lydia Lunch, crossed with Kyle Toucher – ok, maybe just me).  Stylistically, there are touches of Sonic Youth’s SST years (think Confusion Is Sex and songs like “Death to Our Friends”) and more experimental hardcore like Flipper and Saccharine Trust.  It’s a great, arresting listen.

The EP is out now, courtesy of the oh so fine Wharf Cat label (seriously, check the catalog).  Not much to find on the band, for now, so continue to scour the interwebs for any info relating to tours, further releases, fan club meet and greets, séances, etc.

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Share the Wintry Embrace of “Collapser” by Kid Koala and Emiliana Torrini

Posted on 2017/01/11 | Leave a comment

Cover art for Kid Koala’s “music to draw to: satellite”.

Kid Koala, “Collapser” (ft. Emiliana Torrini) (Arts & Crafts, 1/20/2017)

“One day you’ll know/Why i had to go”

There are moments, when walking out amidst newly falling snow, when background noises are muted, replaced with a preternatural stillness.  Small dots of white in the air and on the ground sift and swirl together, dusting brows and lashes and forming a constantly evolving portrait.  It’s a thrillingly rare moment of stillness, often best experienced under the close cover of darkness – like being under the dome of your own snow globe.

Play this song at the turn of the key.

Featuring vocals from Emiliana Torrini.  Taken from Kid Koala’s forthcoming music to draw to: satellite, due January 20 courtesy of Arts & Crafts (pre-order here).  Follow Kid Koala on fbook and the twitt.

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